Year: 2007

Air Cargo imports in Mumbai airport rise 32%

Posted by | Jan 13, 2007 | |

Air cargo imports into Mumbai airport rose 32% to 13,336 tons in November ’06, compared to November ’05, as per the latest available airports authority of India data. Exports from Mumbai dropped 1.9% in the same month, over last year, to 12,405 tons.

On the imports side, Air India maintained its lead, with 1,925 tons imported in November ’06, a rise of 24% over November ’05, followed closely by Cathay Pacific, with 1,407 tons, showing a 164% year on year growth.

Singapore airlines came in third, with 1,376 tons, up 19% and Lufthansa was fourth with 1,020 tons, up 20%.

In all cases, high industrial activity and demand for materials is showing up in rising imports cargo tonnage and origin. With China-India opening up to trade with each other, imports of machines, tools, garments, raw material, samples is rising exponentially, which benefits Cathay Pacific as the largest Hong Kong/ China based carrier.
Air India was the top carrier in exports out of Mumbai, with 2,424 tons in November ’06, up 1%. In the year 2005-06, it held 18% market share of air exports from Mumbai, which has already moved up to 19.5% in November ’06. Taking second slot is Emirates, with 1,176 tons, up 4% over November ’05.

It held 9.5% share in November ’06. Garments, textiles, gems, food items form major chunks of the cargo for both Air India and Emirates. The logistics majors FedEx and UPS turned in a 43% and 25% increase in cargo exported in November ’06 over November ’05.

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The European Mail Manifesto: growth, partnership and innovation in a changing industry

Posted by | Jan 12, 2007 | |

The Postal Users Group has issued a manifesto on the main interests of business users of postal services to encourage the European Commission to take the postal users needs into account when it is preparing its next proposals on postal services this year. PUG, an alliance of the major postal users representing 15 trade associations and businesses, points out in its manifesto that the postal services cover a very wide range of businesses and systems. The letter mail business of Europe´s postal operators represent about 1 million jobs and revenues of 47 billion euro; however, PUG shows that the wider sector accounts for an additional 4 million jobs and over 150 billion euro of revenues.

Contents (i)
List of figures (ii)
List of case studies (ii)
List of annexes (ii)
Signatories (iii)
Foreword (iv)
Author’s Foreword (v)
Executive summary (vi)
1. Introduction 1
2. The postal segment of the mail industry
3. The broader mailing industry 17
4. A shared vision for the future 25
5. Conclusion 33
Annex 36
Bibliography 38
P:LibraryPostalEuropean Mail Manifesto PUG 0706.pdf

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Royal Mail staff to receive 'phantom' shares

Posted by | Jan 12, 2007 | |

Ministers in the UK are likely to approve plans that would give tens of thousands of Royal Mail workers “phantom shares” in the company, linking their pay to the state-owned postal operator’s performance.

The plan, the details of which have yet to be agreed by Alistair Darling, trade and industry secretary, and Allan Leighton, Royal Mail chairman, could lead to its employees being handed up to GBP5,000 each in the shares over five years.

The shares would be bought and sold like real ones, within a trust mirroring the scheme at John Lewis, the retail group.

The phantom shares favoured by ministers would behave like shares and go up and down in value in line with the company’s performance. But they would confer no ownership rights.

Both sides said on Thursday night no final decision had been taken on how to incentivise staff. It is believed Mr Leighton would accept a phantom scheme, provided the value matched his proposal of GBP5,000 over five years.

Mr Leighton has been lobbying the government to set up an employee share ownership scheme as an essential move to win the co-operation of employees in restructuring and modernisation. But the CWU argues this would be tantamount to privatisation and 199 Labour MPs have opposed it in a Commons motion.

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USPS says its transformation plan has achieved remarkable results

Posted by | Jan 12, 2007 | |

The U.S. Postal Service said it has achieved remarkable results and is better prepared to help ensure a prosperous future for mail, according to its progress report on the organization’s transformation efforts.

The 2006 Annual Progress Report examines progress made on key strategies identified in the Strategic Transformation Plan, 2006-2010.

In the report, Postmaster General John E. Potter said that the USPS has achieved seven straight years of productivity growth, and in 2006 had its fourth consecutive year of positive net income, along with high levels of service and customer satisfaction. In addition, he said the agency is poised for new breakthroughs in service improvement and cost reduction that will recast the future of mail.

The report reflects the postal service’s commitment to make mail a more powerful and versatile business tool for customers.

The report identifies improvements in address and mailing list quality as a critical priority for 2007. Each year billions of pieces of mail cannot be delivered because addresses are incomplete, wrong, or out of date.

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Competition in Spain could shake up Correos

Posted by | Jan 12, 2007 | |

To be fair, it must be pointed out that Correos does face tremendous difficulties in some areas, particularly new urbanisations, where road names have not been assigned nor houses numbered. Almost every day there is news of another mayor and his cronies in the town hall approving more developments which will vastly increase the populations of their areas. However, it doesn’t seem as if Correos ever gets any more staff. Now the state monopoly could be in for a big shake up. The European Commission has proposed changes in postal services by applying strict competition rules.

Consumers are likely to welcome the Commission’s moves to force competition into a vital service that clearly isn’t working properly in the many areas of Spain that have seen significant increases in the population over a relatively short period.

It was reported in November that the Spanish government was considering the proposals and that private postal operations might be able to use the Correos network to offer their services as competition was allowed. However, in competitive markets, prices can go up as well as down. Profit-driven businesses love delivering mail in cities and dense developments. No-one is interested in taking a birthday card to a person living in an isolated home up a long mountain track.

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Japan Post automatic transfers fail on system glitch

Posted by | Jan 12, 2007 | |

Japan Post said Friday some 10,000 automatic withdrawals from postal savings accounts failed over four business days from Jan. 4 due to a computer system glitch.

The trouble emerged as Japan Post made some modifications to its computer system to prevent erroneous money transfers on Jan. 4, it said.

Japan Post reverted to the previous configuration on Thursday and the system has worked properly since, it said.

Japan Post has apologized to users of the automatic money withdrawal service for the inconvenience and been in contact with them over how to implement the transfers.

The failed transactions were among a total of about 34 million money transfer orders issued over the four business days. The amount of money involved is not yet known.

As a result of the system malfunction, 1,243 users were unable to receive payments such as utility and credit card charges.

Japan Post said it is investigating the specific cause of the system failure.

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Vietnam accedes to the World Trade Organisation

Posted by | Jan 12, 2007 | |

Vietnam has finally been admitted to the World Trade Organisation, bringing its total membership to 150. The General Council of the WTO approved Vietnam’s membership on 7 November 2006, and it acceded 30 days after the agreement was ratified. The decision ends over 11 years of preparation, including eight years of negotiation.

“Vietnam has shown how anchoring domestic reforms in the WTO can yield dramatic results. Vietnam’s economic growth topped 8% last year, foreign direct investment rose steeply to over USD6 billion, and exports surged by over 20%. More must surely follow with the new laws, administrative measures, and commitments on goods and services that are in Vietnam’s membership package,” WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said at the time of the membership approval. According to the latest WTO data, Vietnam’s merchandise exports were USD26.5 billion in 2004, and its imports were USD32.0 billion.

Many companies have not waited for the accession to commence their investment in the market. In 2006 both DHL and FedEx made agreements with the Vietnamese Post and Telecommunications Group and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to establish alliances. Also last year NYK Lines committed to sinking USD200 million into a number of shipping and logistics projects. These will include port and shipbuilding initiatives. TNT is extending its Asia road network to Vietnam, scheduled for the first half of this year, and in the last few months APL, MOL, Aramex, Kintetsu, DHL have all announced initiatives.

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POD signature capture portal launched by NetDespatch

Posted by | Jan 11, 2007 | |

An industry portal for handling electronic Proof of Delivery (POD) has been launched by NetDespatch. A world first, PODXchange™ is an open Internet exchange that provides a central data hub for parcel carriers to view, search and receive parcel tracking information submitted by any courier. Couriers can submit delivery information for any carrier by sending their status updates and signatures electronically to PODXchange.

Meanwhile, shippers who use different carriers will be able to use PODXchange to track all of their shipments in one place. With a fit-for-all web based reporting mechanism, PODXchange streamlines the use of both internal and sub contract couriers through an off-the-shelf solution for processing electronically submitted collection and delivery information.

PODXchange is a ground-breaking development in the parcel industry, both in the UK and abroad. It gives carriers complete freedom to use any third party courier knowing that they will be equipped to provide data in the right format. With live status updates and POD signatures posted directly to the web portal, all consignment details are available immediately for customers to view and for importing into a carrier’s own tracking system.

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